Dog Walker

early 1830s

Dog Walker, early 1830s. India, Lucknow, Company School, 19th century. Gum tempera and ink on paper; overall: 22.2 x 15.9 cm (8 3/4 x 6 1/4 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Seventy-fifth anniversary gift of William E. Ward in memory of his wife, Evelyn Svec Ward 1992.143 Made for a set that would have been sold to a British East India Company affiliate, this painting by an Indian artist depicts an Indian servant attempting to comply with the British convention of walking dogs on a leash. He seems resigned to accommodating British wishes, but without a natural understanding of how to do so properly. Similarly, the artist creates a cursory landscape setting and awkward shadows under the figures to accord with the preferences of British collectors for spatial depth and realism, but these were not elements of traditional Indian painting, and they appear as half-hearted and unsuccessful as the dog walk. William Ward worked as an exhibition designer at the Cleveland Museum of Art.